Correction Appended
MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 22— A Federal judge ruled today that public libraries cannot bar homeless people because their presence, their staring or their hygiene annoys or offends other library patrons.
At a time when libraries across the country are increasingly used as a refuge by homeless people, however, the judge, H. Lee Sarokin of Federal District Court in Newark, did not dispute the right of public libraries to draft rules governing its patrons, including the homeless.
"Libraries cannot and should not be transformed into hotels or kitchens, even for the needy," he said. But, he said the regulations must be specific, "their purposes necessary and their effects neutral."
Judge Sarokin ruled in a case involving the Free Public Library of Morristown and Morris Township here, which adopted a set of rules in July 1989 specifically to keep out a 41-year-old homeless man from Morristown, Richard R. Kreimer.
While upholding the library's rules banning patrons without shirts or shoes, he said that other rules were too vague or broad, including ones barring patrons who are not reading, studying or using library materials, who harass or annoy others through noisy activities or by staring, or whose "bodily hygiene is so offensive" that it is a nuisance to others.
"If we wish to shield our eyes and noses from the homeless, we should revoke their condition, not their library cards," he wrote. Judge Sarokin said the unconstitutional regulations violated the First Amendment rights of the homeless by denying them access to the ideas in the books and newspapers in the library. "The First Amendment protects the right to express ideas and the right to receive ideas," he said.
He went on, "Society has survived not banning books which it finds offensive from its libraries; it will survive not banning persons whom it likewise finds offensive from its libraries."
Standing outside the library this afternoon with his lawyer, Bruce S. Rosen, Mr. Kreimer called Judge Sarokin's decision a "great ruling."
"The issue is does a homeless person have the same right to read, to sit and think, as someone else," he said. "You cannot discriminate. Just because a person doesn't look as good, smell as good or dress as good, you're not going to keep him out of the library."
Mr. Rosen, Mr. Kreimer's lawyer, called the ruling "novel."
"I don't know if there are any other rulings in the country dealing directly with homeless rights to public libraries under the First Amendment," he said.
The chief librarian, Nancy Byouk, declined to comment on the case, referring questions to the library's lawyer, Clifford W. Starrett.
Mr. Starrett said he would not comment on the ruling, or a possible appeal, until, after he and the library's board of trustees had discussed it. Libraries as Shelters
The executive director of the New Jersey Library Association, Patricia Tumulty, said she could not comment on the ruling until she read it. But she said the question of when a librarian can ask someone to leave has been increasingly discussed in New Jersey, where homeless people have appeared in city libraries more and more frequently, particularly in the winter.
"One of the things that librarians never do is ask people why they are there," Ms. Tumulty said.
Under New Jersey statutes, she said, it is up to libraries to develop policies and procedures on when a person will be asked to leave. A subcommittee of the library association is trying to develop a position paper on the subject.
Across the country, homeless people often turn to public libraries as daytime shelter, especially in winter. One community, Haverhill, Mass., has even designed a new library with a separate room specifically for homeless people.
Judge Sarokin's ruling is Mr. Kreimer's second legal triumph in the last month. On April 19, New Jersey's Attorney General, Robert J. DelTufo, held that the homeless in New Jersey must be allowed to vote even if they have no permanent mailing address or specific domicile in the election district where they are staying. Calls Ball Park Home
That case also involved Mr. Kreimer, who had applied to vote through the Morris County Election Superintendent, using the address of "Streets of Morristown, Fourth Ward." Election officials here had requested guidance from Mr. DelTufo on Mr. Kreimer's application.
Mr. Kreimer said today that in lives in Ledgewood Park, a baseball and basketball complex, in the Fourth Ward here. He said he had played both sports there as a youth.
"Sometimes I sleep under blankets, sometimes in a sleeping bag," he said. "If it's raining, I may go into a baseball dugout."
Asked where he took his meals, he replied, "I get them from a friend."
Mr. Kreimer grew up in Morristown and had worked as a house painter and in the warehouse of his family's paper goods business until about a decade ago, he said. He said he had been homeless since he lost his own house in 1982 "because of some family problems." He would not elaborate.
While his lawsuit against the library was pending before Judge Sarokin, library officials softened their regulations against his presence in the building and allowed him to enter. Reading About Sports
He said he generally spent an hour each morning and an hour each evening there, reading mostly books on sports.
"I just finished a biography of Yogi Berra," he said. He said he had also recently read books on Ron Guidry, the former Yankee pitcher; on the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry over the years, and on what he called the chronological stories of Eskimos.
During his months-long, highly publicized fight with the library, Mr. Kreimer has become widely known here and apparently fairly deeply disliked.
As he spoke outside the library this afternoon, at least five passing motorists shouted derogatory remarks at him. He also got into a heated exchange with one couple on the sidewalk.
"None of them know what it's like to be living on the streets," he said. "Despite the social and economic disadvantages of the homeless, we have the same rights to a library as everybody else."
Photo: Richard R. Kreimer, a homeless man who won his suit against Morristown, N.J., on access to town's library. (Najlah Feanny for The New York Times)
